"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do mot just happen."
~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
400,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. Many, if not most, could have probably been prevented, if not for all the misinformation, lies, conspiracy theories, of one man, Donald John Trump. As dreadful and depressing as it all is, I'm not thinking about him so much right now, because I am choosing to think of the souls lost to the virus, and the feeling of gratitude I feel deep down for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and their efforts to bring us out of the darkness, before they have even assumed office.
Last night they held a remembrance ceremony, at the Lincoln Memorial, as 400 lights were illuminated, along the sides of the reflecting pool, each representing 1,000 people lost to the disease since it was first diagnosed in America early last year. It was certainly a beautiful and profound event, but very surreal, because not only does my mind reel from the number of dead, but the number diagnosed... 23,839,868. But if that wasn't enough, there are armed guards surrounding the capitol, because of the very real possibility of violence from Trump supporters, later today, during the Inauguration.
It's all out of my hands. None of us can control the future, but I can keep myself up to date on the virus, and what I need to do to stay healthy. As for the acts of domestic terrorists, I have no control over that either. Prayer won't even help. All I can do is hang on, and hope that folks will wake up to the fraud that Trump is before their bitterness is acted on, and someone gets hurt. Its all so out of control, but a little later today, we will be on our way to healing. At 12 noon ET, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, and I will hang-up my job as an amateur political analyst. I just want to feel happy again.
Happiness is only a little under 12 hours away.
"To heal we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember. But that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation."
~Joe Biden
1/19/21
"We gather tonight, a nation in mourning, to pay tribute to the lives we lost. For many months, we grieved by ourselves. Tonight we grieve together."
~Kamala Harris
1/19/21
~Carly
